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ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED

Chrome's own label for a name it couldn't resolve — raised by Chrome's network stack, not necessarily by your operating system or your internet connection. Run the check below to see whether your DNS is actually failing, or whether this is Chrome's cache or its Secure DNS setting.

Updated 5 min read

Checking your DNS from this browser…

Runs in your browser against public resolvers. No IP address is stored — just the day, the network operator you're connected through, a country code, and the results above, to build a picture of DNS behaviour per network. Privacy policy.

What ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED means

ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED is a Chrome network-stack error, raised when Chrome's own name-resolution path fails to produce an address. That's a broader statement than a single DNS response code — two of its most common causes never leave Chrome at all: a stale entry in Chrome's own host cache, which is kept separate from the operating system's and viewable at chrome://net-internals/#dns, or Chrome's Secure DNS setting quietly routing lookups through a DoH provider you may not realize is active.

The check above measures the same three things every diagnostic on this site does: whether a known-good domain resolves right now, whether your resolver validates DNSSEC, and what public resolvers say about the same lookups. It does not identify which resolver you're using and does not measure how fast it answers, and it can't see inside Chrome's own cache directly — but a known-good domain resolving cleanly through this same browser does show one lookup path working end to end, which makes Chrome's own cache or its Secure DNS setting the more sensible place to start.

Why this usually points at Chrome, not your network

Unlike a definitive NXDOMAIN answer, this error can be produced entirely inside the browser. Common causes, roughly in the order worth checking:

  • Chrome's own host cache is stale. It remembers a lookup failing from before a DNS change took effect, and keeps serving that old miss on every retry.
  • Secure DNS is pointed at a provider that isn't answering. Chrome silently falls back to reporting failure rather than trying the network's normal resolver.
  • An extension or security software is interfering with Chrome specifically. Ad blockers, privacy tools, and some antivirus or VPN clients inject rules that surface as a resolution failure rather than a blocked-content page.
  • Occasionally, it's a genuine network fault. If the check above showed even a known-good name failing to resolve, treat this as connection-wide rather than Chrome-specific, and work through the fixes below in order.

How to fix it, in order

  1. Clear Chrome's own host cache

    Open a new tab, go to chrome://net-internals/#dns, and click "Clear host cache." Chrome keeps this cache separate from the operating system's, and a stale negative entry in it is the single most common cause of this exact error. If the check above found a known-good domain resolving fine from this same browser, this is very likely the actual fix — the network isn't the problem.

  2. Check — or temporarily turn off — Secure DNS

    Chrome's Secure DNS setting, under chrome://settings/security, can point lookups at a DoH provider that's unreachable, misconfigured, or blocked on your current network, which raises this exact error even while ordinary DNS elsewhere on the same connection works fine. Switch it to "With your current service provider" or off, then reload the page.

    Encrypted DNS setup guides

  3. Flush the operating system's resolver cache too

    If the check above showed even a known-good name failing to resolve, this isn't confined to Chrome — flush the OS-level DNS cache as well before assuming a wider network fault. Windows: ipconfig /flushdns. macOS and Linux commands are in the setup guides.

    Setup guides

  4. Point your device at a public resolver

    If the check above showed public resolvers answering normally while your own configured resolver did not, the fault is your resolver specifically — not Chrome, and not the wider internet. Switching bypasses it in about a minute.

    Compare public resolvers See setup guides

ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED — frequently asked questions

What does ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED actually mean?

It means Chrome's own network stack failed to turn a domain name into an address. That's a broader statement than a specific DNS response code — unlike DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN, which reports a definitive "this name doesn't exist" answer from DNS itself, ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED can be raised for reasons that never leave Chrome at all, including a stale entry in its own host cache or a Secure DNS provider that isn't answering.

Is this different from DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN?

Yes. NXDOMAIN carries a specific, standard DNS response meaning the name genuinely doesn't exist anywhere. ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED is Chrome's more general failure label, and it can appear even when no such definitive answer was ever received — because the failure happened inside Chrome's own resolution path before a clean DNS answer had a chance to come back either way.

Does this mean my internet connection is down?

Usually not. If your connection were actually down, nothing would load anywhere. ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED often shows up for one domain, or one tab, while everything else on the same machine — including other browsers — keeps working normally. That selectivity is itself a clue that the fault sits inside Chrome's own resolution path rather than your network.

What does the check on this page actually test?

Three things, run from your own browser: whether a known-good domain resolves right now, whether your resolver validates DNSSEC, and what a handful of public resolvers say about the same lookups. It does not identify which resolver you're using, and it does not measure resolver speed — and it can't see directly inside Chrome's own cache, though a clean result here does at least show one lookup path working end to end.

Will an incognito window fix it?

It can look like it does, which is misleading rather than diagnostic. An incognito window starts from a different in-memory state in some Chrome versions, so it can sidestep a locally cached failure without anything on your network actually changing. Treat it as a quick smell test, not a fix — if the real cause is a network-side resolver fault, incognito will hit it too.

Can browser extensions or antivirus software cause this?

Yes. Ad blockers, privacy extensions, and some antivirus or VPN clients inject rules into Chrome's request handling that can surface as a name-resolution failure rather than a blocked-content notice. If the check above didn't point at a network-side cause, disabling extensions and security software one at a time is a reasonable next step.